 | News
Comment | Ashton: No Specific Plans for Land Behind Sir Alf Ramsey Stand
at 00:31:56
no word of a lie, I actually pitched town T.V (or similar) to Iain Milner (one of the C.E.O's in the Marcus Evans days for anyone with a short memory) and it was shot down instantly. So this is very, VERY interesting indeed.... |
| News
Comment | Town Purchase Land Behind Sir Alf Ramsey Stand
at 23:34:10
@itsonlyme
Im not torn at all about that one at all. Yeah of course I would love a stadium with bells and whistles on it. but given the choice between the two, I would rather do it at Portman Road where town greats, both staff and fans, have trod for well over a century now. I want success but lets not sell our soul to do it
Luckily though, Portman road is more than an adequate stadium to do it in |
| News
Comment | McKenna Can't Speak Highly Enough of Aluko
at 20:08:52
Gotta admit, when he first got here, I genuinely thought his legs had gone and his reactions and vision were a yard or two slower. Im just glad to be proved wrong :)
Surely he has to be worth one more year, maybe 2? |
| News
Comment | McKenna: Norwood is an Important Part of the Squad
at 21:44:47
I try to avoid speculation wherever possible but this really does make you wonder. When the goals and chances dried up, we had Nors, a proven goal getter training with the u23's and seemingly out of the door.
Was Cookie told to drop him by Ashton? Was it this sort of thing that led to Pauls utter belligerence to not change the system? Were there arguments behind the scenes which led to Mark Ashton getting a rollocking from the board for trying to get too involved in first team affairs? Or was it simply a case of Nors and Cookie having a massive bust up over a substitution that never happened and they were playing the diplomatic game for the press?
It's just a bit funny that as soon as Paul left, Nors was back with everyone's blessing. There's something that doesn't quite fit here but I suppose that's been our last 3 managers in a nutshell really |
| Blog
Comment | Five Reasons to Be Optimistic and Five Reasons to Remain Cautious
at 23:33:03
not_a_witty_name
I heard that about the Cobbold stand too. Apparently putting in a replay screen, new score board, proper state of the at stuff. I really do hope that they are not selling off the naming rights to pay for it though. I want shiny new things but I really don't want to sell the soul of the club to do so. And I think you might be right in regards to Ashtons first team role I did consider floating the idea that Cookies utter refusal to change tactics that clearly were not working was part of some old school belligerence to Mark Ashtons suggestions but that is total speculation and I try to avoid such things in blogs
AlpineBlue
Thank you. I am considering starting a YouTube channel of animated shorts covering bios and analysis (like Tifo Football but centred around Ipswich) but thought I would try my hand at blogging to get a feel for it first To be fair, I think that K McK had an unseen hand in that Sunderland game. I don't think J McG came up with the inspired switch to 3 at the back on his own. But yeah the difference between the two styles of play are night and day. Lets just hope that its not too little too late. Im with you though, its a crazy league and everyone beats everyone so theres still time and hope yet |
| News
Comment | Cook: At All My Clubs Apart From Ipswich I Felt I Was in Control of My Own Destiny
at 19:30:57
I have nothing against Paul Cook. I REALLY wanted him to do well. BUT...
This club just wasn't a fit for him. He is used to a lower league set up where the dinner lady is also the receptionist. Where the coach is also the scout and the physio also doubles as the electrician. We do not have that set up anymore. With Marcus the club was a wild west of "Ah just do what you want" Whilst counting beans. The new ownership seem to be setting up for life at the top of the Championship
Yes, mistakes have been made. Getting rid of Chambo, Freddie, Cole and a few others without passing on the culture of the club to the new talent was a massive misstep (A few had to go though) but does Paul Cook honestly believe that both Manchester got to where they are due to a "Boxing gym culture" or is it because they actually set up shop properly with a performance department? Training in cold hard gyms and hardships is all well and good if you want to scrap your way out of the league but what good is it if you cant play the damn game as a team?
Sad fact is he is a couple of years out of date now. This aint your mamas league one anymore and towards the end it REALLY started to show that playing each game as it comes just aint going to cut it anymore |
| News
Comment | McKenna on Bonne: The Club Are in Discussions and We Hope He Can Remain With Us
at 19:07:32
BlueRuin69
His centre forward play has generally been class. I think he has been involved somehow in a good 80 percent of out goals (Like "he's behind you!"). Has looked a bit burned out at times as playing alone up top can be knackering without the service but now he's in a two as one half of the bash brothers or even with Pigs (There's still a player there, he just needs the minutes) or Jackson, well any combination of that just screams goals if we can get Wes or Kyle fired up.
Especially now we seem to be favouring 3 at the back as its been clearly obvious that a 3 5 2 is our strongest formation for quite a while now. Even if Cook was too stubborn to see it |
| News
Comment | Ashton: This is Such an Important Appointment For This Football Club
at 21:05:30
@Orraman
A manager... well... manages everything. He is responsible everything from picking the side right to the dinner ladies. He manages the kit man, looks in on training, has a part in transfer negotiations, sends out scouts and generally manages the club in stead of a chairman who handles the business aspects of running a club.
A head coach is responsible for training, tactics and squad selection and nothing else. The rest of the clubs management will fall into the lap of the CEO who will answer to the chairman.
Both have drawbacks and benefits. Benefits of being a manager are you get direct control over everything. he gets the staff that he wants, the playing personnel (assuming the chairman is doing his/her job) and everything s run by the person. Obvious drawback is without a decent staff, the actual football is a fraction of the job and this is a hell of a lot of pressure that very few can survive and thrive in
Benefits of being a head coach is you can concentrate on tactics and planning picking the team in three game cycles and nothing else in the club matters. drawback is that you are beholden to others doing the managerial role and, unless your name is pep Guardiola (sometimes im convinced that even he just rocks up to the training ground to find man city have casually brought [insert class player here]) you pretty much get given the squad that your given and told to make do with it
In fact, I have a strong suspicion that it has happened with us last window. (the signing random players part) Id say Paul Cook had his pre deals of players he wanted to sign. Then along came Ashton and added MORE players with his contacts and knowledge of this league. All of a sudden we have 7 players for the same position, nothing for the left and probably a bit of early disharmony to go with it. Its probably why we ae looking for a head coach now and not a manager because we have Aston for that now |
| News
Comment | Cook: Our Club's Fortunes Are Not Going to Be Changed With a Magic Wand
at 18:47:08
@SooperJim
I agree 100 percent. However id go a step further than game management and say that he has no league management skills either (it was all probably Leam Richardson's doing in the past)
Lets go back a month or so to Portsmouth, Plymouth and Wycombe. Three very tough away trips from Suffolk covering well over 1000 travel miles playing some high intensity football. We won two out of three of those games which was awesome. However he then went and played the exact same team with the exact same style against Oldham and the performance fell flat prompting a replay and even more travel miles. Then he played nearly the exact same team (and system) against Sunderland which is over 600 miles to play the exact same team and the exact same system AGAIN against Rotherham and duly got battered. Now we are facing the exact same scenario with a game today, a game on Tuesday before making up some more silly travel miles to Wigan, back for Sunderland and then Wycombe again 3 days later
Point of all of that last paragraph? All of that travel and intensive style can only lead to player burn out, a full Physios office and doctors surgery or both. Ipswich is in an unfortunate position geographically which means every away day is like taking the one ring to Mordor and Paul is not managing this very well in the slightest. Couple with what you said, Its left a very talented squad which should be challenging for the title in mid table and he needs someone to tell him all of this as constructive criticism (and he needs to learn it) fast.
|
| News
Comment | Cook: McGreal's a Really Good Appointment
at 13:49:47
itfc58
Paul Cook is still the right man to take us forward for the foreseeable at least. He is an excellent manager. What he is not though, is an excellent coach. From what I can see (albeit im only seeing the results on Saturdays and Tuesdays) Our current crop of players are superb with the ball but haven't got a clue about what to do without it. This leads to individual errors because the players team mates are not presenting for the ball thus leading to hesitation and errors, wide players presenting inside for the ball and bringing a marking defender with him and at times it seems like we are trying to attack the opponents goal before we have even won the ball back, hence not being able to hold on to a two goal lead.
That's not to mention some truly bizarre subs (either too late or just plain wrong) and sticking rigidly to a system that's quickly becoming out of date for this league and wastes the truly devastating attack force we have. On paper we have 4 of the best strikers in the league but only ever play one without any form a rotation.
Thing is, if he had a decent coaching staff and a decent number two, someone who can read the game and plan for the weeks ahead, we would actually be unstoppable and wouldn't look out of place in the top half of the championship. But one of the Things that comes with age and (vast) experience is an utter arrogance to change and admit that things are not quite what they should be. I just hope that John McGreal will be a step in that direction when Kieron Dyer is fit enough to resume his duties |
| News
Comment | Cook: Our Inconsistency is Our Consistency
at 23:32:07
I mean what did he expect? He has by and large picked the same side that has had a really tough 5 game cycle which included 3 very long and cold away days in the form of portsmouth, Plymouth and Wycombe (travelling really does take the energy out of the player) and wants to play all out gung ho attack with high intensity. Its really not rocket science to figure out that this style of play with the same players 100 percent of the time will lead flat performances like this one.
Not only will it leave the other players wondering what they have to do to get into the team but eventually we will run out of steam. Because now we have knackered snd burned out our [arguably] best eleven before two massive promotion six pointers which include travelling the of the country and, on top of that, we will have to travel up to Oldham midweek for the replay which is another long away day. All of this could have been avoided by simply making a few changes and maybe have another formation or two so that the players can not burn out (and still get the result) because at this rate, the players are going to falter when the games get to the high stakes table.
Whilst I am in no way a cook out kind of guy, he really does need to start planning ahead and start utilising the squad to be a bit smarter about match days and play the right formation for the right team otherwise we will end up falling short. |
| News
Comment | Celina and Dobra Called Up
at 16:38:02
Vancouver_Blue politics apparently. Something about the F.A not releasing English based players due to government no travel zones as Covid 19 restrictions are in place. Will be interesting with the African cup of nations coming up to see how many players get released and to which countries it affects |
| | adamisablue2
|
Site Scores| Forum Votes: | 0 | | Comment Votes: | 15 | | Prediction League: | 0 | | TOTAL: | 15 |
|
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.